LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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BLACK HILLS OF 



A MINIATURE HISTORY OF THEIR 

Settlement, Resources, Population, and Prospects, 

WITH 

ACCURATE TABLES of LOCAL DISTANCES, 

AND A 

GEIfEEAL BUSIS"ESS DIREOTOEY 

Of the Principal Towns. 



EDITED AND COMPILED BY 
AND PUBLISHED BY 



CHICAGO: 

CiiAs. H. Wyman, Printer, - - 57 Washington Street 

1879. 
Copyrig-hted, 1879, by J. S. Gantz. 



T EC E 



BLACK HILLS OF DAKOTA, 



A MINIATURE HISTORY OF THEIR 

Settlement, Resources, Population, and Prospects, 

WITH 

ACCURATE TABLES op LOCAL DISTANCES, 

AND A 

SIEI^ERAL BUSIjI^ESS DIREOTOEY 

Of the Principal Towns. 



EDITED AND COMPILED BY 

EC- 3iT- nSZC J^ G- TJ 1 1^ E , 

AND PUBLISHED BY 

J-A.OOS s. (Or Ji^ 1ST rr z . 



CHICAGO: 

HAS. H. Wyman, Printer, - - 57 Washington Street, 

1879. 

Copyri.e^hted, 18T9, by J. S. Gantz. 






1 

THE BLACK HILLS OF DAKOTA. 



HISTORICAL. 

The Black Hills of Dakota were first visited by white men in 
1810, when Wilson P. Hunt, of the American Fur Company, 
skirted them on the north while leading an expedition overland 
to the moutli of the Columbia. 

Soon after the Hunt party passed through, the more daring of 
white trappers pushed up the Cheyenne river from the Arickaree 
and Maudan Indian villages, and occasionally penetrated the 
wild forests and gloomy gorges of the Black Hills; and in 
1830 the Missouri Fur Company established a trading post near 
the junction of the North and South Forks of the Cheyenne. 

Thenceforward vague and indefinite reports began to circulate 
of the existence of rich gold deposits in the Black Hills; and 
it seems authenticated that Indians did, as far back as 1849, 
exhibit specimens of native gold which they claimed to have 
there found. 

Then followed government and private exploring expeditions, 
which gave the world something approximating reliable in- 
formation in regard to the resources of the Black Hills. The 
actual discoveries of Capt. Bonneville in 1834, of Harney in 
1855, Warren in 1856-'7, Dr. Hayden in 1858-'9, and Gen. Sully 
in 1864, proved conclusively that gold, coal, iron, and salt 
abounded in the Black Hills; and their reports were fully con- 
firmed by the observations of Father DeSmet, the venerable 
Catholic missionary, who visited the Black Hills at a very early 
day. 

The Dakota Legislature, in the sessions of 1862 and 1868, sent 
memorials to Congress for a geological survey of the Black 
Hills, based on what was claimed to be conclusive proofs of the 
country's great value as a region of varied mineral wealth. 

It is published that in 1852 a party of nineteen men detached 
themselves, at Tort Laramie, from a large party en route to Call- 
fornia, influenced by the reports then current of rich gold de- 
posits in the Black Hills, made their way thither, and found rich 
diggings and opened claims; and that they were all massacrod 
by Indians save one, who shortly after died of disease. This 
story is so far corroborated that many evidences of old mining 
works— a rotten, weather-warped string of sluices among them— 
were found in abundance in the Black Hills soon after the great 
rush of 187G-'7. 



HISTORICAL. 3 

Finally, in the summer of 1874, Gen. Custer entered the 

)uutry at the head of an army of a thousand men, and reported, 

pon his return, that "gokl was discovered at various points." 

The fall of 18T4, defying both hostile Indians and an order of 

' le General Government interdicting immigration, an expedi- 

on, composed of twenty-eight men and one lady, set out from 

.ioux City, and reached French Creek the latter part of Decem- 

' 3r, where they found gold and erected stockades. They were 

)on after joined by parties from Bismarck and Cheyenne; and 

Y the spring of 1875, while the prairies were still covered with 

low, the frontier towns were all active with preparations for 

jdigration to the Black Hills. Then the military patrolled all 

le routes of ingress, and seized and destroyed a wagon train 

.•elonging to eniTigrants from Southern Dakota and Western 

.Iowa; and those in charge of it were arrested and imprisoned. 

Early in the summer of that 3'-ear those who had reached the 

ountry were ordered to leave. But the excitement continued to 

itensify until it got beyond control, and the opposition of the 

eneral Government was practically withdrawn a year before 

-le treaty was concluded with the Indians for the cession of the 

(;ountry to the whites. 

Custer City being the objective point of the first year's rush, 
before the close of 1875 its main street, nearly half a mile long, 
V as crowded with all kinds of business houses. 

In the spring of 1875, at the very time the General Govern- 
nvent was pursuing Black Hills immigrants with bayonets, it 
sont out a scientific expedition, under Prof. Jenney, to make a 
geological survey. The report of this expedition was confirma- 
l )ry of previous reports of the richness and extent of the gold 
(deposits; though the professor did not fully investigate tlie rich 
deposits, in vein and placer, in Whitewood and Deadwood 
j'alches, from which the bulk of the gold so far produced has 
sen taken. 

From French creek prospectors early scattered all through 
i.ie Hills, so that when Prof. Jenney got into the country he 
1 )Und mining districts already organized on Spring, Rapid, and 
Castle creeks. 

Early in the spring of 1876 the famous Whitewood and Dead- 

'^vood diggings were discovered, seventy-five miles north of 

Custer City, at once making those points the centers of popula- 

'Idu, and speedily resulting in the building up of Deadwood 

' it}"-, the present metropolis of the Black Hills. 

During the summer of 1876 the population of the Black Hills 

as swelled by an immigration of not less than seven thousand — 

nearly all of whom settled in and around Deadwood City — and 

the gold yield of that year was about $1,500,000. As quartz 

mining was not inaugurated until the next year, all this was 

taken from the placers. 

Of the entire number in the country on the first of July, 1876, 



4 HISTOmiCAL. 

seven-eighths, or about 7,000, were located in an 1 about Dead- 
wood City; 300 were engaged on the Rapid creek bars; and the 
remainder, or 700, were on Spring and French creeks, and in 
other localities in the Central and Southern parts of the Hills. 

Gayville, a mile and a half above Deadwood City, and Crook 
City, eight miles below, were laid out nearly simultaneously 
with Deadwood ; Hill City, on Spring creek, was founded soon 
after Custer City ; and Rapid City, on Rapid creek, was laid out 
two months earlier than Deadwood City. 

Indian hostilities commenced with the departure of the first 
emigrant train for the Black Hills, and it cannot be said that 
they have yet terminated — though the Hills settlements are now 
so strong, and extend over the country so generally, that Indians 
are not feared as formerly. How many lost their lives in and 
on the way to the Black Hills in 1875 will never be known. 
Many set out on the trip who were never heard of afterwards, 
and the murdering fiends prowled about the very suburbs of 
Custer City and Rapid City. But the greatest number of massa- 
cres were committed in 1876. That year four men were killed 
on the Cheyenne route, and the Metz family were slaughtered in 
Red Canyon; one man was killed on the Redwater river; one 
man was killed on lower Whitewood, and two were killed on the 
trail between Deadwood and Crook City; four stage company 
employees and a merchant were shot down and scalped on the 
Pierre route; three were killed on the Bismarck route: fourteen 
or fifteen were killed on the foot-hills near Rapid City ; and pro- 
bably not less than a dozen of the victims of the massacres of 
1876 lie buried at Custer City. 

Although the list of massacres of 1877 is not nearly as long as 
that of 1876, it was to the Black Hills settlers a year of constant 
alarms. The outlying settlements were frequently raided, herds 
of stock were driven off", and some lives were sacrificed. 

In the year 1878 only one man was killed in the Black Hills 
settlements — a ranchman in the Redwater country ; and George 
H. Firman, a freighter, was wounded five miles out from Rapid 
City, on the Sidney road. 

The present year (1879) two men were murdered on the Pierre 
route, at the Cheyenne crossing, and a few days later a man 
was killed on the Bismarck route, by stragglers from Little 
Wolf's band of Cheyennes, on their way to join Sitting Bull's 
forces. [They were captured a few weeks later, when attempt- 
ing to cross the Yellowstone.] But hostile Indians no longer 
infest the Black Hills, and no danger is to be apprehended 
from that source in the future except from war parties passing 
through. 

On the 1st of November, 1876, the terms of the treaty under 
which the Black Hills were sold to the whites were agreed to 
by the head-men of the Sioux and the Government Commis- 
sioners, and the treaty was ratified on the 28th of February, 1877. 



HISTORICAL. 



FIRST HOMICIDES. 



In February, 1876, a man was killed at Custer City — the first 
homicide by a white man in the Black Hills. The man who 
fired the fatal bullet had a jury trial, and the jury brought in a 
verdict of accidental killing — the victim and perpetrator both 
being drunk and recklessly flourishing their pistols at the time — 
but fined the latter $30, all *he money he had, "for handling 
firearms carelessly in the public streets." 

At Gayville, on the 10th of July, 1876, John Hindi was mur- 
dered by knife stabs, and J. R. Carty and John McCarty were 
accused of the crime. A committee of seven citizens, appointed 
by a miners' meeting, to hold an inquest upon the body of 
Ilinch, reported that "the killing was without just cause or 
provocation." Carty and McCarty escaped out of the country; 
but the former was captured soon after at Fort Laramie, and 
brought back to Gayville. On the 1st of August he had a trial 
by a meeting of miners, a jury of twelve having been selected, 
and the evidence showed that McCarty, and not Carty, had done 
the stabbing. The verdict was, " We find the prisoner guilty of 
assault and battery;" and he was discharged from custody. 

On the 18th of July, 1876, near Crook City, James Shannon 
and Thomas Moore fought a duel with rifles, the former being 
shot through tlie heart by his antagonist, and Shannon's bullet 
passing directly over and close to Moore's head. Moore was 
acquitted by a miners' meeting. 

On the 2d of August, 1876, J. B. Hicock (Wild Bill), the 
famous scout, was killed in a Deadwood saloon by Jack 
McCall — the perpetrator having been hired, it is said, to commit 
the bloody deed. Though McCall was acquitted by a citizens' 
meeting, he was afterwards arrested by the United States au- 
thorities, and expiated his crime by being hung at Yankton on 
the 1st of March, 1877. 

We give the circumstances of these first deaths b}'' white men's 
violence in the Black Hills to show that the majority were, from 
the beginning, in favor of maintaining law and order, however 
ineffectual their attempts to do so may have proved. 

In the spring of 1877 the three counties of Lawrence, Pen- 
nington and Custer were formally organized by the officers 
appointed by the Governor of the Territory entering upon the 
discharge of their official duties; since which time regular 
courts of justice have been maintained in all parts of the coun- 
try, and security Iro person and property is now as full and com- 
plete in the Black Hills as in any other part of the Union. 
Many deaths by violence have occurred, it is true; but the per- 
petrators and victims have generally been of that class who are 
disturbing elements in all communities. 



6 MINERAL VEINS. 

Mineral Veins— Progress of Quartz Mining. 

Fully developed, the quartz mines of the Black Hills already 
located and developed, embracing gold, silver and copper, 
would give employment to 50,000 miners. Already 4,700 loca- 
tions have been made, and new discoveries are being made 
daily. A more inviting mining field for capital and enterprise 
was never opened on the continent. 

In the winter of 1877-'8 Pacific Coast capitalists made heavy 
investments in quartz veins about Lead and Central City — untfl 
their coming lying dormant — since which time the gold yield of 
the Black Hills has been constantly and rapidly increasing. 
For a while it had been thought all the veins that could be 
profitably worked were confined to the belt of fissures about the 
heads of Whitewood and Deadwood gulches ; but recent discov- 
eries have demonstrated that "the belt" extends from the Red- 
water country, twenty-five miles northwest of Deadwood City, to 
Harney's Peak, sixty miles to the southeast, and there is good 
reason to believe it will prove uniformly rich throughout this 
great extent. 

In the summer of 1876 rich silver ores were discovered on 
Bear Butte creek, a few miles southeast of Deadwood City; 
copper was discovered on the Box Elder, on Elk creek, and near 
Sheridan; silver was discovered south of Custer City; coal was 
discovered on the Redwater, and in various places between 
Rapid City and Crook City; and now it is reported that silver 
ores, rivaling in richness and extent the famous silver mines of 
Leadville, Colorado, have been found in Rochford district; and 
ffi'ere is every reason to believe zones of silver-bearing and 
copper-yielding ores run parallel with the great gold belt, and 
equal it in extent. 

The gold yield of 1877 is estimated at $2,500,000; the yield of 
1878 at $:3,000,000; and the yield of the present year will not fall 
short of !f;7,00U,000. 

California capitalists paid $400,000 for the Father De Smet 
mine; the Golden Terra sold for $80,000; the Homestake No. 1 
for $70,000; Homestake No. 2 for $50,000; and the Old Abe for 
$250,000. The Stand-by mine, in Rochford district, has been 
bonded for $125,000, and a good share of the agreed price has 
been paid; the Marjr Bell, Segregated Stand-by, Evangeline, 
Little Woodchuck, and other Rochford mines, are considered 
of immense value; and great veins of rich ores, gold, silver, and 
copper, are now being developed in the vicinity of Tigerville, 
Pactola, Hill City, Sheridan, and Custer. 

The California companies "stocked" their mines, and some 
of the stocks were started on the San Francisco boards at less 
than a dollar per share which are now quoted at from $4 to $10 
per share. All the Black Hills stocks handled by Pacific Coast 
capitalists have steadily appreciated as development progressed, 



MINERAL VEINS. 7 

and they have become the favorites of the markets outside of the 
Comstocks. A few months ago tlie Homestake stock was quoted 
between $2 and $3, and now it is over $30, and continues to rise 
in value. 

There are now 24 mills in operation, working an aggregate of 
625 stamps, the total gold yield of which per month is".|404,150. 
A number of other mills have been contracted for, some of im- 
mense proportions. 

It is predicted that within five years a chain of mills, ope- 
rating many thousands of stamps, will be in operation from Lead 
City all the way across the Hills to the vicinity of Cu.-.ter City. 
No mining country in the world can show better natural work- 
ing advantages than are possessed by the districts south, east, 
and west of Rochford — wood and pure flowing water in abun- 
dance everywhere, and along the main Rapid and its principal 
branches water-power of unlimited extent to propel machinery. 

The discovery of the Little Woodchuck silver mine, and other 
argentiferous veins, in Rochford district, has given a new 
impetus to silver mining interests in the Black Hills, and it is 
probable that the time is near at hand when the silver yield here 
will approximate in aggregate annual value the gold yield. A 
company of ample means is now organized to work the silver 
mines on Bear Butte creek. 

Promising copper ores have been found on the Box Elder and 
Jim creek, and about Sheridan. 

Quicksilver has been found in the Hidden King, at Pactola, 
and about nine miles southwest of Rapid City. 

Petroleum wells and saline springs exist on the western foot- 

^ ^* THE PLACER DEPOSITS. 

The placer deposits of the Black Hills are of immense extent. 
There are untold millions of dollars lying in the main channels 
of Rapid, Spring, Battle, and French creeks, and in the rich 
bars along them — which include the rich camps of Rockerville, 
Tigerville, and Hayward City, these being on tributaries of the 
currents designated. And we are told it is highly probable a 
placer area of great extent will be developed to the northwest of 
Deadwood City, along the southern tributaries of the Redwater. 

The high deposits of these localities are so distant from water 
that they cannot be advantageously mined until large prelimi- 
nary expenditures shall have been made in fluming work. This 
accounts for their still lying undeveloped. It is estimated that 
there is a sufficiency of water and of good paying bar ground to 
warrant the operation of 120 hydraulics on Rapid and Spring 
creeks, which would afford employment to ten men each, or an 
aggregate of 1300 miners. All this ground '' will pay," as two or 
three hundred men have been engaged in all parts of it for three 
years carting the dirt down to water. Under the hydraulic 
method it would yield immensely. Rich bar diggings are also 



8 POPULATION. 

found all along Battle and French creeks, and it is only a ques- 
tion of time when they will be reached by flumes carrying 
enough water to work them to the fullest extent. 

Bed-rock is very deep in all the main channels, with a heavy 
flow of water over it — especially in Rapid and Castle creeks; 
but by using the most powerful steam-punaps bed-rock has been 
reached in several places on Rapid and Castle creeks, at great 
distances apart, and in every instance good prospects were found, 
the gold usually being coarse and of the nugget class ; and all 
the tributary channels which have been opened have proven 
rich. But it will not pay to mine those deep diggings by the 
use of steam machinery. The time is not distant when they will 
be made available by bed-rock drainage — the only practicable 
method — and then they will give employment to 10,000 miners. 

The undeveloped placer deposits of the Black Hills will give 
employment to 25,000 more miners than have heretofore been 
engaged. 

Where, under existing industrial conditions, can the laboring 
man find a more promising field? Where can the capitalist, in 
the present general stagnation of business, find openings for 
safer or more profitable investments ? 

POPULATION (May, 1879). 

The population of the Black Hills is variously estimated at 
from 15,000 to 20,000. We believe it may be set down at 17.500, 
and that the population by counties may be thus given: Law- 
rence county, 12,500; Pennington county, 3,750; Custer county, 
1,250. 

The population of the towns may be thus estimated : Dead- 
wood City, 5,000; Central City, 1,500; Lead City, 1,000; Rapid 
City, 500; Rockerville, 700; Crook City, 500; Gayville, 300; 
Golden Gate, 300; Galena, 200; Rochford, 400; Custer City (for 
a while nearly abandoned, but again advancing), 800; Sturgis 
City, 300; Spearfish City, 250; Sheridan, 200; Hill City, 200; 
Tigerville, 300; Pactola, Castleton, Hayward, Sitting Bull, 
Myersville, Montezuma, Florence, and Ochre, 100 each. This 
aggregates the population of the towns at 12,650 — leaving out of 
the assumed aggregate population of 17,500 4,850 to be dis- 
tributed among the more distant camps and agricultural sec- 
tions — the Redwater, Cheyenne, Belle Fourche, Lower Rapid, 
etc. The great majority of those in all the towns^except, per- 
-haps, Deadwood City, the commercial center, and Lead City and 
Central City, the ore-crushing centers — are miners, engaged in 
the development of mines in the immediate vicinity of their 
respective residences. 

The present indications are that the population of the Black 
Hills will be largely increased — b}^ an influx of both agricul- 
turists and miners — before the close of the year. 

The local movements of population are now from the north 
to the South — from Lawrence to Pennington and Custer coun- 



TABLES OP LOCAL DISTANCES. 9 

ties ; but slioiild the new mines in the Redwater country develop 
as richly as is hoped for, or should practical work be inaugu- 
rated on the proposed Deadwood City and Redwater narrow- 
gauge railroad, Lawrence county may again lead in increase of 
population. 

TABLES OF LOCAL DISTAxXCES. 



Deadwood Ci y to— 

Gentral City 

Gay ville 

Golden Gate 

Pennin""ton 


Miles. 
... 2 

;;; 7' 

... 5 


Rapid Citt to— 

Crook City 

Deadwood 

Central City 

Lead City 


Miles. 

35 

42 

44 

46 


South Bend 


... 2 


30 




... 3 

... 7 
... 9 
... 4 
... 12 
... 25 
...35 
...42 
.. 47 
...35 
... 54 
. . 45 
...51 
... 60 
... 70 
...14 
... 27 

:;: ^ 

...14 
a?. 




47 


Crook Citv 

Galena 


Forest City 

Pactola 


56 

. ... 15 


Lead City 

Spearfish. 

Rochford 


Castleton 


27 

16 


Hill Citv 


22 


Pactola 

Rapid City 

Sheridan 


Tigerville 

Rockerville 

Hayward 


26 

12 

. .. 18 


Castleton 

Rockerville 

Tio-erville (via Castleton) 


Harney City 

Custer City 

Rochford 


20 

40 

28 


Hill City 




30 




Mvers City 


30 


Custer City 

Forest City 


Ochre City 

Golden Center. 


30 

29 


Florence t ........ . 


Elkhorn Citv 


31 


Ochre City 

Sturg-is 


Mountain City 

Sitting Bull 


45 

26 


Fort Meade 




30 




Fort Meade 

Pennington 


28 






Miles. 
.. 25 

28 


. . 47 


Rochford to— 


Gayville 

Rockerville to— 

Rapid City 


43K 


Rapid City 


Miles. 

12 

8 


Tigerville 

Castleton 


::: 1 

...29 
...25 

...27 
...26 


Custer City 

Central City 

Gavville 

Golden Gate 


Hayward 

Harney., 

Hill City 


6 

8 

15 


Penning^ton 

South Bend 

Anchor 


.. 20 
...25 
...25 
.. 32 
...34 
...25 
...33 
...15 
...28 


Tigerville 

Castleton 

Custer Citv 


21 

30 

30 


Crook City 

Galena 

Lead City.. 

Spearfish . . '. 

Pactola 

Sheridan 


Sitting Bull 

Rochford 

Deadwood 

Sturgis 

Fort Meade 

Crook City 


31J^ 

35 

54 

44 

42 


Castleton 


::: i^ 

.. 25 
...45 
...39 
.. 2 

... 30 
... 32 
.. 5 


59 


Rockerville 

Hill City 


Galena 

Forest City. 


42 

. . . «« 


Hayward 

Forest City .' 

Florence 

Ochre City 

Sturgis 

Fort Meade 

Sitting Bull 





10 GENERAL FACTS. 



GENERAL FACTS. 

The area of the Black Hills is 6,000 square miles, situate 
between the Forks of the Cheyenne river. They are mineral- 
bearing nearly throughout, holding mines of gold, silver, quick- 
silver, copper, lead, plumbago, coal, and other metals and min- 
erals — gold, silver, and copper predominating in importance. 
Probably no other portion of the globe, of the same extent, con- 
tains such a quantity and variety of mineral wealth. 

Where the soil is susceptible of cultivation it is very produc- 
tive, being a very rich vegetable mold; but the tillable extent, 
within the Hills proper, is limited — will not exceed one-twelfth 
the entire area. There are, however, extensive farming tracts 
along and for many miles out from the foot-hills. 

Much of the country between the Forks of the Cheyenne is 
unsurpassed for grazing. In some localities animals keep fat 
the winter through without being fed from the stack. 

The timber belts of the Hills have been over-estimated in 
extent Probably 4,000 square miles are covered with pine 
forests, besides which there are generous growths of oak, 
ash, and other hard woods, along the foot-hills, and considerable 
Cottonwood along the lower water-couf ses ; but the demand for 
these timbers, in agricultural and mining pursuits, will con- 
stantly increase, wherefore it is not probable lumber will ever be 
exported to any considerable extent. 

The experience thus far has been that rainfalls are heavy 
and frequent in the early summer and early fall, usually accom- 
panied by terrific electrical phenomena. 

The winter snow^-fall has been no greater than the spring and 
autumn rainfall. Though the mercury sometimes drops below 
zero, the experience has been that the average winter tempera- 
ture of the Black Hills is no lower than that of Chicago; and 
often there are delightful conditions of weather in the winter 
months. 

The sanitary condition is now excellent, though the first two 
years of the country's settlement mountain fever — of the typhus 
type — was very prevalent, and often terminated fatally. 

The natural scenery combines all that is grand and beautiful 
in niiture — richly grassed valleys, picturesque parks, forest- 
crowned peaks, and savage canyons. The Black Hills will un- 
doubtedly be a favorite summer resort for tourists when railroad 
communication shall have been established. 

The greatest elevations in the Black Hills are: In the north- 
west—Devil's Tower, 5,100 feet; Crow Peak, 6,700; Elk Moun- 
tain, 6,750; and Warren's Peak, 6,900. In the northeast— Bear 
Butte, 6,000 feet. In the west — Inyan Kara Mountain, 6,750 feet, 
and Crook's Monument, 7,600. In the south— Harney's Peak, 
towering above all the others with an altitude of 7,740 feet. 



MISCELLANEOUS PACTS. 



11 



The altitude of Dead wood City is 4,425 feet; Rapid City, 
3,175; Rockerville, 4,125; Crook City, 3,725; Pactola (esti- 
mated), 4,000; Rocliford (estimated), 4,500; Custer City (esti- 
mated), 4,200. 

As the most accurate and comprehensive method of fixing the 
geographical position of the Black Hills relative to other parts 
of the country, we give the following directions and distances in 
miles from various points to Harney's Peak, the highest eleva- 
tion — taking a map by Lieutenant of Engineers George M. 
Wheeler, U. S. A., as the basis of calculation: 



Chicag"o •. . 

St. Louis 

Yankton 

Omaha 

Cheyenne 

Sidney 

Denver 

Salt Lake 

Helena (M.T.). 
San Francisco. 

Bismarck 

St. Paul 



WEST. 


NORTH. 


EAST. 






770 






730 






270 






350 


75 






"80 






450 






420 


190 




825 








205 


115 




70 


480 



160 
400 
100 
190 
200 
185 
300 
210 

*4io 



Three years ago elk, deer, and bearj were numerous in the 
Black Hills, and they are still often seen in localities distant 
from the mining camps; but they have become shy, and it now 
takes a skillful hunter to capture them. Mountain lions 
(the largest of the panther race) are occasionally seen in wild, 
secluded places. The antelope is found on the foot-hills and 
adjacent plains. There are also beaver, hares, rabbits, red pine 
squirrels, foxes, wolves, coyotes and prairie dogs. Among the 
fowls sought by the sportsman are ducks, grouse, prairie 
chickens, pheasants and sand-hill cranes; and of the smaller 
kinds there are meadow larks, robins, doves, wrens, tom-tits, 
blackbirds, and nearly all the woodpecker species. Birds of 
prey are numerous, from the fierce little sparrow-hawk up to the 
kingly eagle. 

MISCELLAjVEOUS FACTS. 

There are six newspapers published in the Black Hills — four 
in Lawrence county, and two in Pennington — established in the 
order we will give them : Black Hills Pioneer (daily and weekly, 
at Dead wood); Black Rills Times (daily and weekly, at Dead- 
wood); Black Hills Herald (dail}--, at Central City); Black Hills 
Journal (weekly, Rapid Citj^); Western Enterprise (daily. Lead 
City) ; Black Hills Central (weekly, Rochford). All are liberally 
supported. 

The number of stock grazing between the Forks of the 



13 MISCELLANEOUS PACTS. 

Cheyenne is numbered at 100,000 head. Thousands more will 
be brought in within the present year. 

In 1878 there were 23,000 tons of freight brought in ; and it is 
estimated, from now known necessities and business plans, that 
35,000 tons will be brought in this year; and the aggregate will 
be much greater should the mining interests of Rochford dis- 
trict develop as is expected. Two telegraph lines are in operation. 

Three stage companies are in operation — Deadwood, Rapid 
City and Sidney ; Deadwood and Bismarck ; Deadwood, Rapid 
City and Cheyenne. 

Churches and schools, and the leading humanitarian and 
charitable institutions, are well sustained in all the principal 
settlements. 

The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Company have 
commenced work on an extension of their Iowa and Dakota 
division — which is to be an air-line as nearly as practicable — 
from Canton, in Eastern Dakota, to Rapid City, and thence on 
to Deadwood. They promise to have the cars running within 
seventy-five miles of Rapid City the present year, and that the 
road will be finished in the summer of 1880; and the powerful 
Illinois Central and Chicago and Northwestern Companies will 
also rapidlv extend their northwestern connections toward the 
Black Hills. 

The Cheyenne and Black Hills Railroad Company claim that 
nearly all their stock has been subscribed for, and they promise 
to begin construction work at an early day. 

There are four companies of troops now stationed at Fort 
Meade, and some elegant mansard-roofed officers' quarters have 
been erected ; but the public moneys thus expended would do 
the Black Hills pioneers as much good if they were burned in a 
bonfire at Washington City, as there are no roads or settlements 
of any kind to protect where Fort Meade is situated. The War 
Department has been memorialized to abandon Fort Meade, and 
establish garrisons in* the Redwater country and on the Lower 
Rapid, where they would do some good. 

Rapid creek is the largest current in the Black Hills — water 
cool, soft, and sweet. In the dryest seasons its volume is not 
less, on the average, than 25 feet wide and 12 inches deep, and 
the greater part of the year it is of sufficient extent for rafting 
from the center of the Hills down to the Cheyenne. As its name 
implies, it is a swift, impeftious current, and it flows through 
magnificent pine forests. 

The Spearfish, on the north, is as large and attractive a cur- 
rent as the Rapid; and the Redwater, in the northwest, is a 
current of much greater volume. 

The number of business firms is 2,000. 

Few manufacturing enterprises, aside from the lumbering 
business, have as yet been inaugurated. Several breweries are 
being successfully operated in Lawrence count}", and a large 
cheese factory and creamery is being erected at Rapid City. 



PABMING AND GRAZING. 13 

Fifty thousand bushels of potatoes were raised in the Hills 
valleys in the summer of 1878, 10,000 bushels of grain, and 
large amounts of all kinds of vegetables. A much greater 
breadth has been sown and planted the present year. 

The machinery for a grist mill, to be erected in Spearfish 
valley, has been purchased, and the mill will be put in opera- 
tion "the present year. A grist mill may also be erected the 
present year in the Rapid valley. 

Four daily mails are in operation. 

FAEMING AND GRAZING. 

When mining is considered as unconnected with other 
industrial pursuits, it is simply barbaric. It strips a country of 
its native wealth, leaving behind no recompensing monuments 
of beauty or substantial contributions to civilization. Though 
even richer and more lasting than we have reported them to be, 
the mines of the precious metals are not alone sufficient to make 
the Black Hills a country of progress and enterprise, of happy 
and refined homes. 

The Forks of the Cheyenne aggregate about 400 miles in longi- 
tudinal extent, the bordering valley lauds having an average 
width of probably five miles. In places the soil is rich and 
fertile, being a black loam, from three to six feet deep. But the 
fertile tracts are of limited extent, the major portion of the 
valley lands having a light, sandy, and unproductive soil. 

In places there are fine groves of timber on each stream — 
Cottonwood, oak, ash, elm, and quaking asp — affording an ample 
supply for building, fencing, and fuel. 

The best farm sites are to be found on the uplands, the bottom 
lands not being so well adapted to general tillage ; but the latter 
are sometimes good for oats, and are usually valuable for their 
heavy growth of hay grasses. 

On the uplands there are extensive tracts of excellent wheat 
ground; and in some localities the more tender vegetables, such 
as melons, cucumbers, tomatoes, etc., do well, and the hardier 
varieties of tree fruits would undoubtedly succeed. 

One-fifth of the valley lands of the Forks of the Cheyenne, or 
an aggregate of three hundred square miles, could be success- 
fully cultivated. This would subdivide into twelve hundred 
farms of a quarter section each, all within easy marketing dis- 
tance of the mining camps. 

As flour has never been rated in the Hills below $5.50 per 
hundred pounds, and never can be much lower before railroad 
communication shall have been established, a more profitable 
field for grain-raising cannot be found on the continent. 

Outside a few stock ranch locations, none of the lands on the 
Forks of the Cheyenne have yet been appropriated. 

Back from the Forks of the Cheyenne, towards the mountains, 



14 FARMING AND GRAZING. 

are also extensive districts of excellent farming lands — practi- 
cally proved to be such. The principal of these are the valleys 
of the Redwater and ^^pearfish on the north and northwest, 
Rapid creek valley on the east, and French creek on the south ; 
but I will not consider French creek valley, as, unfortunately, 
it does not now, and may never, possess adequate irrigating- 
facilities. 

The cultivable area of the Redwater and Spearfish valleys 
embi^aces not less than 150 square miles, or land enough for 600 
farms of a quarter section each. About 150 locations have been 
made in those valleys — fifty of which have been improved by 
actual cultivation ; the remainder being devoted to stock rais- 
ing. Everything grown elsewhere in the United States, in the 
same latitude, can be, and has been, successfully raised in the 
valleys of the Redwater and Spearfish. One Spearfish farm 
netted its owners, in 1877, $15,000, from potatoes alone; after 
which they sold their improvements for $3,000. 

The supply of water is ample to irrigate all the farming lands 
of the Spearfish and Redwater valleys. 

The cultivable extent of the lower Rapid creek valley — all 
of it below its emergepient from the mountains, — and the con- 
tiguous lands which may be irrigated from the Rapid, must ag- 
gregate 200 square miles, or enough for 800 quarter section 
farms. 

Probably not to exceed 100 locations have yet been made in 
this section, leaving room for 700 more. 

Enough grain has been raised in the Rapid creek valley to 
demonstrate the adaptability of the soil and climate to the pro- 
duction of all the small grains. The finest potatoes exhibited at 
the Dakota Terj'itoriai Fair in 1877 were produced on the town 
site of Pactola, 13 miles above Rapid City, where the growing 
season is somewhat shorter than on or below the foot-hills. 

All the farming lands of the Rapid creek valley are advan- 
tageously situated for irrigating, and the supply of water for 
that purpose is unfailing ; but irrigation for grain was not nec- 
essary in the summer of 1877. 

As plums, and other wild fruits, grow abundantly along the 
foot-hills, and on the lower water- courses, we believe the hardier 
varieties of fruits can be produced in the Black Hills. 

According to the above estimates, which are below rather than 
above the correct figures, there are enough choice farming lands 
on the Forks of the Cheyenne, and in the valleys of the Rapid, 
Redwater and Spearfish creeks, for 2,466 quarter- section farms. 
Only 300 have yet been located, leaving 2,166 for future comers. 

We have not taken into account the innumerable^ little isolated 
valleys, in all parts of the country surrounding and in the inte- 
rior of the Black Hills, where good farming tracts may be found, 
and we exclude all that is not specially adapted to cultivation. 
Including these minor valleys, we may safely say there are a 
half million acres of the richest soil in and about the Black 



FARMING AND GRAZING. 15 

Hills subject to location under the pre-emption and homestead 
laws. 

The entire territory between the Forks of the Cheyenne may 
be estimated at 1-5,000 square miles. We think one-half of this 
area is specially adapted to stock raising, and in nearly every 
portion stock could find good protection against inclement 
weather in the groves and willow thickets which abound along 
all the streams. 

Stock ranges extend beyond the Forks of the Cheyenne in 
nearly every direction, stretching in a westerly direction into 
the magnificent grazing fields of the Big Horn and Yellowstone 
valleys, and easterly to the Missouri river. 

"When the supply of beef exceeds the home demand— as it soon 
must — the Black Hills stock-raiser can get his cattle into the 
general markets very cheaply, as he would have but little over 
one hundred miles to drive over, and good ranges all the way, 
by following the general course of the Cheyenne down to the 
Missouri river. 

The many extensive prairie tracts in the interior of the Black 
Hills, called "parks," we believe to be specially adapted to sheep 
raising. The ranges will probably be thus divided, by common 
consent, when the stock interests grow into magnitude — sheep 
in the mountains, and horses and cattle in the lower valleys. 

The time is certainly near at hand when the Black Hills re- 
gion will be one of the leading sources of supply for beef cattle ; 
and it may become important for the production of wool. "With 
nearly five millions of acres of grazing lands, of such a charac- 
ter that stock can subsist upon them nine months out of the 
twelve, it would become a prosperous country without other re- 
sources. 

There are flowing springs in all parts of the country. A 
spring two or three miles above Rapid City is a great natural 
curiosity. It flows enough water, the year around, to propel 
any amount of machinery. Being in the midst of a large grove 
of wide-spreading oaks, and walled in by grand mountains, it 
bids fair to become a noted pleasure resort. 

Is not the foregoing exhibit satisfactory? It requires not the 
gift of prophecy to foresee the result. As constant as the tides 
of the ocean are the currents of emigration from the east to the 
west. The necessities of the race demand that all this dormant 
wealth of mine and soil and stream shall be developed, and it 
will be within the next decade. The mineral veins will be tun- 
neled; the auriferous gravel banks leveled; the fertile valleys 
wrought into grain fields and orchards ; the richly-grassed hills 
and plateaus covered with domestic herds; the torrents har- 
nessed to the driving wheels of the mill and factory ; and liberal 
educational systems — inspiring those forms of free thought 
which lift the soul and expand the mind — will halo the whole 
with moral beauty and intellectual splendor. 

" Time's noblest offspring is the last." 



16 DIGEST OF MINING LAWS. 



Digest of Mining Laws— General and Local. 

Only citizens, and those who have declared their intention to 
become such, can legally locate mines. 

All land is mineral that is moi'C valuable for mining than 
farming purposes. 

A vein or lode extends 150 feet on each side of its center, and 
the end lines must be parallel with each other. 

Locators have the exclusive right of all the surface included 
within the lines of their locations, and of all veins throughout 
their entire depth the tops or apices of which are inside such 
surface lines; but their right of possession is confined to such 
portions thereof as lie between vertical planes drawn downward 
through the end-lines of their locations — no right being granted 
to enter upon the surface location of another. 

Where two or more veins intersect or cross, the prior location 
will take the ore within the space of intersection. 

The discoverer must record within twenty days from the date 
of discovery, and his location certificate must contain (1) the 
name of the vein; (2) the name of the locator; (3) the date of 
location ; (4) the number of feet in length claimed on each aide 
of the discovery-shaft; (5) the number of feet in width claimed 
on each side; (6) the general course of the vein, as nearly as 
may be. 

The following is the usual form of a location certificate : 

Know all men by these presents : 

That we, Richard Roe and John Doe, of the county of Lawrence and Terri- 
tory of Dakota, claim, by right of discovery and location, fifteen hundred feet 
linear and horizontal measurement on the Golden Horn lode, along- the vein 
thereof, with all its dips, variations and angles, together with one hundred and 
fifty feet in width on each side of the middle of such vein at the surface, and 
all veins, lodes, ledges, and surface grounds within the lines of said claim. Five 
hundred (500) feet of said claim run northerly from the center of the discovery- 
shaft, and one thousand (1,000) feet run southerly from the center of said 
discovery-shaft; said discovery- shaft being situated upon said lode within the 
lines of said claim, in Hardscrabble mining district, county of Lawrence, and 
territory of Dakota, more fully described as follows : [Here describe the locus 
by reference to contiguous gulches, claims, etc.] 

Said Golden Horn lode was located on the 30th day of May, A. D. 1879. 

Date of certificate, April 28, A. D. 1879. 

JOHN DOE. 
Attest: RICHARD ROE. 

JOHN SMITH. 
TOM JONES. 

The discovery-shaft must show a well-defined vein; a plain 
notice embracing the above facts must be posted at the point of 
discovery; the surface boundaries must be marked l)y eight 
substantial jwsts (besides discovery), hewed on the sides facing 
the location, and su::k in the ground or firmly planted in monu- 



DIGEST OF MINING LAWS. 17 

ments of stone, and arrang-ed as shown in the following 
diagram : 



o- 



O Discovery Shaft ^ 



Any cut deep enough to disclose the vein, or a 10-foot adit or 
trench along the vein from the point of discovery, would be a 
legal discovery-shaft. 

The discoverer has thirty days from the time of uncovering a 
vein to sink his discovery-shaft. [Locators cannot exercise too 
much care in defining their veins at the outset.] 

All mining claims are subject to the right of way, for mining 
purposes, of any ditch or flume, tram- way or pack-trail in use, 
or that may be laid out across such locations ; but such right of 
way shall not be exercised against any location made prior to 
the claim of such right of way without the consent of the claim- 
owners, except by condemnation, as in the case of land taken for 
public highways ; and such ditch or flume shall be so constructed 
as not to injure vested rights. 

When the right to mine is distinct from the ownership or 
right of occupancy of the surface, the owner or rightful occu- 
pant of the surface may demand security from the miner ; and 
if refused, may enjoin the miner from working until such se- 
curity is given. 

A locator may at any time amend his location by recording an 
additional certificate of location, in accordance with the general 
requirements of the mining laws, providing such relocation does 
not, at the time of making it, interfere 'mth the existing rights 
of others. 

In order to hold a vein before patent issues, work must be 
done or improvements made to the value of $100 a year ; and 
within six months from the year within which such outlay is re- 
quired to be made the person who made such outlay, or some 
person for him, shall make and record an aflidavit of the fact ; 
and the recorder's certificate shall be prima facie evidence of the 
performance of such labor or the making of such improvements. 

The relocation of abandoned claims shall be by erecting new 
boundaries and by sinking a new discovery- shaft, or by sinking 
from the bottom of the old shaft as if it were a new shaft com- 
menced from the surface. [The safer course is to sink a new 
shaft.] 

No location certificate can embrace more than one claim, no 
difference how many locators there may be. 

The Register of Deeds is entitled to $1.50 for recording and 



18 DIGEST OF MINING LAWS. 

furnishing- a certified copy — $1 for the former, and 50 cents for 
the latter. 

The penal code of Dakota makes it a misdemeanor, punishable 
by imprisonment in the county jail not less than thii-ty days 
nor more than six months, and by fine not exceeding- $250, for 
two or more persons, by force and violence, or by threats of vio- 
lence, to cause any person or persons to stop working- on mining- 
property. 

The statutes of Dakota embrace a liberal law for the incorpo- 
ration of mining- companies. 

Mining property in Dakota is subject to laborers' liens for 
work performed upon it. 

The locators of a tunnel shall have the right of possession of 
all veins within 3,000 feet from the face of such tunnel, on the 
line thereof, not previously known to exist; and locations of 
veins on the lines of such tunnel that do not " crop out," made 
after the commencement of the tunnel, and while work is being 
prosecuted upon it with reasonable diligence, are invalid. 

Locators of a tunnel must, when they enter cover, erect a 
substantial post or monument at the point of conimencerat-nt, 
and post thereon a notice giving (1) the names of the locatoi-s ; 
(2) the proposed direction; (3) the height and width; must (4) 
specify in their notice such well-known or easily-ascertained 
objects in the vicinity as will clearly determine the extent and 
course of the tunnel when completed; and (5) at the time of post- 
ing their location notice, shall establish their boundary lines by 
lines of stakes or monuments to the terminus of the 3,000 feet 
claimed. 

A full and complete copy of the notice of location defining the 
tunnel claim, with a sworn statement of all the relating facts, 
and that it is the intention to prosecute the work with reasona- 
ble diligence for the discovery of veins, must be filed for record 
at the time of posting the notice of location. 

The money expended in making a tunnel is considered as ex- 
pended upon veins struck in such tunnel. 

Upon the failure of one of several co-owners to contribute his 
portion towards the development of mining property, those who 
have so contributed may, at the expiration of the year, give the 
delinquent jiersonal notice in writing, or by publication in the 
newspaper nearest said property at least once a week for 90 days, 
and if the delinquent should fail to contribute his proportion 
within 90 days from the service or first publication of such no- 
tice, then his interest in the property shall become the property 
of his co-owners who have made the required expenditures. 

"When labor or improvements to the amount of $f)00 shall have 
been performed or made upon a vein, patent may be applied for. 

Notice of such application must be published for sixty days, 
at the expiration of which time, if no adverse claim shall have 
been filed, it will be assumed that the applicant is entitled to a 



DIGEST OF MINING LAWS. 19 

patent, upon making" the necessary proofs and paying- the Re- 
ceiver of the district office the official fees and $5 per acre. [The 
preliminaries of obtaining a patent are somewhat complex, and 
exactness is required in detail ; wherefore the applicant had 
better secure the services of an attorney who makes a specialty 
of such business.] 

Placer mining claims may be patented at $2.50 per acre, or at 
that rate for fractional parts of an acre, under like circumstances 
and conditions, and upon similar proceedings, as are provided for 
veins; but no placer location can embrace more than 20 acres for 
each individual claimant, or more than 160 acres in one appli- 
cation. 

A patent for a placer claim conveys any vein embraced which 
was not known to exist when the patent was applied for; but 
when a mineral vein is known to be embraced in the p>]acer tract 
at the time of making application, the fact must be distinctly 
stated, when the patent will issue including such vein 
upon the applicant paying $5 jyer acre therefor, including 25 feet 
of surface ground on each side thereof. 

Owners of quartz mills and reduction works, as well as quartz 
mine claimants, can claim not to exceed five acres of non-min- 
eral lands for a mill-site, upon making the required proofs, and 
paying $5 per acre therefor. 

Mill-sites may be applied for along with applications for 
mines with which they may be connected. 

^ Water-rights for mining jmrposes vest by priority of posses- 
sion; and all patents granted are subjected to such vested rights. 
If an adverse claimant does not commence suit within the 
projier time — from the dishonesty of his attorney, the irregu- 
larity c)f the mails, or any other cause — he has no redress 
thi'ough the Interior Department. 

In the adjudication of mining rights the Interior Department 
decides upon forms ; the courts upon merits. 

Contestants may compromise, and then a new survey will be 
OT-dered conforming- with the lines agreed upon by the com- 
promise. 

Deposits of borax, auriferous cement, copper, diamonds, and 
other precious stones, fire clay, iron, kaoline, limestone, marble, 
mica, petroleum, plumbago, slate, salt spring-s, sulphur, umber, 
etc., may he patented under the mining laws upon proof, in each 
specified case, of the land being more valuable for the mineral 
specified than for agricultural purposes. What is found in vein 
dejiosits must be entered under the provisions of the law gov- 
erning veins, or "rock in place;" other deposits may be entered 
under the provisions of the law governing the entry of gold 
placers. 



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